Rescue Stories
Piper's Story
On Valentine's Day 1999, my husband and I adopted a wonderful, gorgeous ES from our local shelter. Matilda, as we named her, was 12 years old at the time and had lived a hard life in a backyard. She was quite rickety, and we (and our vets) were not sure we would have her more than a few weeks or months. We wound up having 16 months with her, and her totally superior personality, before she died suddenly on June 5. She had a tumor on her spleen, a very vascular one, which somehow ruptured and caused massive internal bleeding. It all happened in the course of a few hours- quite a shock. One day she was running around and happy, a day later we were making the decision to euthanize her.
We were giving some thought to the idea of getting another ES when, on June 12, Jennifer Stastny posted a note from the Humane Society of Cynthiana, KY about a 2 yr. old female ES badly in need of a home- time was running out. Even though we live in Wichita, Ks., we have family in Lexington, and called them. Long story short, we took a 4 day weekend and came back with a 7 month old (we're not sure where the "2 year old" part came from) beautiful, bouncy ES we named Piper. She has been an entertainment and a delight, far exceeding my expectations for a pup. I was worried about how she would do with my other girls, who are 15 and 17 years old, but she is very careful around them- practically walks on her tippytoes to get around them! She plays with her toys all by herself for hours on end. She likes to put her hard toys in her food dish- I'll come home and there are four nylabones standing in her bowl!
We started obedience last night, and she toed the line until some nibbles started falling by the wayside, then it was all slinking toward them on her stomach. Someone in her past had been good to her, teaching her sit and stay, and to sit very still for nail clipping and grooming.
I'm just floored by how great she is- she's my go-everywhere girl, gentle with everyone (except the darn birds). I'm looking forward to many years with my beautiful Piper.
Thank you Jennifer Stastny!!
Tracy Hart
Avalon, age 17
Hannah, age 15
Piper the Pupper
remembering Matilda Jane
Reprinted with permission.